Device for reclaiming sand.



' W. 0. FLETCHER & L. B. BROWN.

DEVIOE FOR REGLAIMING SAND. APPLICATION FILED MAR. 27, 1912.

1,?9 979, Patented Dec. 2, 1913.

bii/l/i/l/l/l/ m l/ l/l/l/ l/l/l/l/ l/l/ i m1 TED STATES PATENT orrrcn.

WENDELL C. FLETCHER, .OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, 'AND LAWRENCE E. BROWN, OF SOM- ERSET, KENTUCKY, ASSIGNORS TO AMERICAN STEEL FOUNDRIES, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY. v

DEVICE FOR RECLAIMING SAND.-

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filedMarch 27, 1912. Serial No. 686,544.

To all whom it may concern: Be it -.known that we, WENDELL Fnn'ronnn and LAWRENCE E. Brown, citi- -zens of the United States, and residents of thevcity of St. Louis, State of Missouri, and.

vcity of Somerset, county of Pulaski, and

State of Kentucky, -respecti-vely,have invented certain new and useful Improve-z ments in Devices for Reclaiming Sand, of

which the following is .a specification.

Our invention relates to the art of metali founding and has particular reference to a device for reclaiming sand after being acteristics, that is, a certain proportion must be sharp and to this end .dust must be eliminated therefrom. It has been custom ary to entirely discard the sand after being once used, and inasmuch as such sand was easily procured the cost was slight; furthermore to separate the sharp sand from the dust entailed some expense. However, in large establishments where extensive founding is carried on the item of sand becomes considerable and for this reason;

vised whereby the sand after being once used may be treated, to the end that the dustand fine particles may be removed and the sharp sand returned to the foundry for reuse. However, the original cost .as well as the cost of operation of many of these reclaiming devices has made such processes so expensive that it was-equally'economical to procure new sand.

It is the principal object of our invention therefore to provide apparatus which shall efliciently actupon used sand whereby the fine particles may be removed leaving the sharp sand for reuse.

It is a further ob 'ect to produce such a machine which shall be simple and inexpensive in construction and economical .in operation.

The principle of the present machine is that of allowing the sand to pass over a series of battles whereby the particles are separated and each thereof exposed to a blast of air, the lighter particles being held many forms of apparatus have been dein suspension and carried with the air, the heavier particles falling by gravity into a proper receptacle.

Our invention will be more readily .understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, whereinthe figure is a vertical section through my novel separating device.

Referring more particularly to the drawings it will be seen that sand is supplied to a hopper 12, from which hopper it is admitted into the separating device 13.

From the bottom of the separating device cleaned sand is elevated by a chain conveyer 14, to a chute 15, which may direct 1 the sand into -a proper receptacle by means of which it is returned to the foundry for reuse.

It will :be understood that the parts heretofore described are mounted on suitable supports and such supports will not 'be described in detail.

The sand-as it comes from the foundry is conveyed into the hopper 12 entering at the point 19, striking the V-shaped deflector 20 land aportion thereof passing on each side thereof. The bottom wall of the hopper 12 Patented Dec. 2, 1913. a

is contracted at two points and openings gnormally closed by gates 21, permit the egress of sand as desired into the separator 1 13. This separator is constructed prefer- Iably with imperforate side walls and has a hopper shaped bottom wall 22. Extending .transverselyof the side walls of the separaitor 13 are a plurality of perforated deflectors .23. Thesedefiectors, as shown in Fig. 2,=are :mounted in pairs, all of the pairs of deflectors. having substantially thesame veritical center line, that is, a vertical line drawn'through the center of the uppermost ideflector would pass through or near to, .the center line of any of the deflectors in that row. These deflectors are mounted at an angle of substantially 45 degrees, and

at their lower outer ends are provided with a large number ofrelatively small perfora- .tions, the number of perforations increasing .with the size of the battle until the lowe'rmost baffles 24 are reached, 'these having only a few perforations at theirouter ends,

their inner ends being joined at 25. In the side walls we provide air inlet and exhaust openings 26, 27, respectively, air under pressure being supplied through the conduit 26, then passing under the baffle 24, being div the waste or exhaust opening 27, therefore .receptacle. v

vided as it passes upwardly, a portion thereed at difierent distances from each other, both vertically and horizontally, that is, that the larger bafiles are mounted closer together than the smaller thereof. The result of this is that the area being decreased the speed or velocity of the air Wlll beincreased,

the velocity decreasing as the area becomes greater. Thus it will be seen that the sand entering the separator from the hopper 12, impinges very slightly, the first baflie then falls on the perforated portion of the second battle; from there onto the perforated portion of the third battle and so on, the Sand being broken up and separated as it passes downward, giving. the blast of air access to each particle. At the lowest point it will be seen that the velocity of the air is greatest and this is the oint where the final test between the velocity of the air and the relative weight of'the particles of sand takes place. Of course, the blast of air might'be made strong enough to carry all the sand out the blast must be regulated whereby the separation of the waste sand to the proper point takes place. The lighter particles will be separated and carried out at relatively higher points in the separator, the finest dust being carried away immediately as it escapes from the hopper 12. The sand which has sufficient mass to withstand the blast of air, passes over the ends of the baflles 24, thence into the hopper 22, where it is restrained by a gate 28. A chute 29 leading from the hopper 22, directs the cleaned sand into conveyer 14, by means of which it is elevated and dumped into the chute l5, and from thence into a car or other It will be seen that the mechanism herein described is very simple of construct-ion; that the parts may be easily assembled in any foundry or manufacturing establishment and that the only expense in operation will be the power needed to operate the conveyers and to provide the blast of air. It has been demonstrated in practice that a re claiming device such as herein described Will reclaim at least ten tons of sand per hour, the cost thereof being inconsiderable.

Many modifications may be made in the exact construction herein shown and described, all without departing from the spirit of our invention.

1. In a device of the class described, the combination of a casing having an air inlet and an outlet, means for delivering sand to be cleaned to said casing by gravity action, and a series of battles of unequal areas disposed transverselyof said casing, the battles of greatest area being disposed beneath those of less area, the outer edges of said baflles being provided with a pluralit of perforations,- substantially as describe 2. In a device of-the class described, the combination of a casing having an air inlet and an outlet, means for delivering sand to be cleaned to said casing by gravity action, and a series of battles of unequal areas disposed transversely of said casing, said baflies being separated by unequal distances, the baflies of greatest area and of least separation being disposed beneath those of less area and greater separation, substantially as described.

3. In a device of the 'class described, the combination of a casing having an air inlet and an outlet, means. for delivering sand to be cleaned to said casin by gravity action, and a series of baflles of unequal areas disposed transversely of said casing, said baflies being separated by unequal distances, the baffles of greatest area and of leastiseparation being disposed beneath those of less area and greater separation, the outer edges .of said baffles belng provided with a plural ity of perforations, substantially as described.

4. In a device of the class described, the combination of a casing having an air inlet and an outlet, means for delivering sand to be cleaned to said casing by gravity action, and a series of baflies of unequal areas disposed transversely of said casing, said balfies being separated by unequal distances, the battles of greatest area and of least separation being disposed beneath those of less area and greater separation, the outer edges of said battles being provided with a plurality of perforations, the inner line of perforations in adjacent baffies being substantially in a vertical line, substantially as described.

WENDELL C. FLETCHER. LAWVRENCE E. BROWN.

WVitnesses to signature of W. C. Fletcher:

\VILLIAM McDoNoUGH, GEORGE L. SCHNEIDER.

WVitnesses to signature of L. E. Brown:

A. GUELL, J. L. CATLE'IT. 

